Illuminated
by Seph Meadowes
Summary: "We don't love like the humans." Four/Caroline. Day #2 of The Month of Caroline challenge. Complete.


_Swing me these sorrows,  
>And try delusion for a while,<br>It's such a beautiful night,  
>You've got to lose inhibition,<br>Romance your ego for a while,  
>Come on, give it a try<em>

**- Hurts, Illuminated**

* * *

><p>"Virginia?" Sam asked aloud as he stared at the map being the honorary navigator as Four for all his global trotting with Henri was just as useful with a map as Sam was on ice skates – absolutely hopeless.<p>

"That's the direction the tracking device is pointing me at," Four explained, not taking his eyes off the road. Six was riding in front of them on her motorcycle, her blonde hair whipping in the wind and causing more than enough distraction for Sam than was needed. "And so there will go."

Sam gave a little sigh and turned away from the wonderful sight of Six to give his friend a bland look. "Four, not that I don't have any problems placing my faith in a questionable glowing rock but are you sure we're headed in the right direction?"

"If you want, we could pull over again and ask Six what she thinks."

Four smirked to himself as Sam visibly stiffened. The last time they stopped was for a bathroom break that Six deemed unnecessary and proceeded to make tactless threats to Sam for 'slowing them down' and 'tearing his bones out with her bare hands' if he kept being such a bother. Four had found it immensely amusing. For all her attitude, Six was quite a character. And her love-hate, borderline abusive relationship with Sam had become Four's own version of _Big Brother_.

"No, it's okay." Sam quickly rebuffed, eyes looking back at the map. "From my estimation, we should arrive in Virginia in a couple of hours….what town are we headed again?"

"Mystic Falls."

* * *

><p>Mystic Falls was for all intents and purposes, the perfect location to hide in for alien refugees. It was the type of small town, barely noticeable and completely forgettable. It was so small that everyone knew each other and it made Paradise look enormous by comparison. The only thing that caught his attention about the place was the large death rate the town's history seemed to come with.<p>

This initially made the trio universe about the place and prompted them to find the elusive Number Five as quick as possible so they could high tail out of there. But first thing was first, they needed their own covers and so with some forged documents, they enrolled at the town's high school. Four could easily pass as Six's cousin or brother but Sam look too different from them to look related so there came in a largely tragic story involving adoption, paternal deaths and generous grandfathers with money to burn. Henri wouldn't have been happy with how totally conspicuous their cover story was but there wasn't much they could do about it now.

The other students had been fascinated with them the first few days. With such a sensational life story and the badass nature and good looks of Six (AKA Savannah Keats) were drawing more attention than they wished. It certainly made snooping a tad more challenging but luckily Sam (Jack Burrows) could disappear from radar without too much effort and had been busy collecting enough info to help them out. Meanwhile Four (or Michael Keats) was busy fighting off all attempts of the football coach to join the team.

Yes, in a small town like this, much like Paradise, all they had for entertainment was sports. Along petty high school drama and mysterious animal attacks. They needed to get out of here as soon and as quickly as possible. But only if they could gauge who Five really was, apparently she was a lot more stealthier than Four was with his Youtube fame.

Six still hadn't stop giving him shit about that.

After chemistry, Sam had approached him at his locker, eyes eager and Four knew that they had a lead. "Stefan Salvatore," the smaller boy explained. "I've seen him play football and the way he moves…totally not human."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

And that was how Four ended up having to try-out for the football team. Much to his embarrassment and against his will of course. If only Henri could see him now. He was sure his cepan would've laughed.

* * *

><p>Try-outs for the team weren't even until November but the coach had been practically begging him to join ever since he saw him throw a football at Tyler Lockwood and knocking him to the ground. (He'd been in a bad mood and the Lockwood jerk wasn't helping any as he kept bullying Sam.) Needless to say, the coach had been more than happy to hand him a helmet and let him get pummeled by the team. (And with Tyler being the captain what could possibly go wrong?)<p>

Four had to use some of his super alien speed and strength just not to get killed since apparently Tyler had put a kill order on his head. And ever obedient, the entire team was more than willing to make sure he didn't get off the field alive. He had to remind himself that he needed to do this because Stefan could be Number Five and a few bruises wouldn't be so bad. He would later prove himself wrong.

Tyler had knocked him to the ground at some point, the air being knocked out of his lungs from the impact and he swore he saw stars. Tyler had just smirked at him and challenged him to keep going. Just so he could suffer some more. What a sadistic bastard.

Four got up anyway, not wanting to let Tyler win. A hand appeared before him to let him up and he looked up in surprise at Stefan who seemed sympathetic to his plight.

"Tyler's like that with all newbies." He explained. "Just ignore him and he'll eventually stop."

Four just nodded and as he watched Stefan Salvatore jog away, he knew that he wasn't who they were looking for. He'd seen how the guy played and Sam was right, he didn't play like a human. He was too fast, too strong, had too much instinct to do the right plays. But Stefan Salvatore wasn't an alien either.

He was just something else. What that was Four didn't know and he didn't think he wanted to know either. But all thoughts about Stefan's true nature were knocked out of his mind (literally) because Tyler had continued with his assaults and the last thing he saw was the fast upcoming ground before all spiraled down to a black abyss.

* * *

><p>He woke to shiny blonde curls and for a moment he thought he was back in Paradise with Sarah. Kind, beautiful Sarah who he'd been missing for quite a while now much to the annoyance of Six and Sam who thought him 'a sappy lovesick bastard' (Six's words) and he was reaching up to touch her face….<p>

He winced as she pushed him back down. His head throbbed with what he realized was a large bump on his head and as his vision cleared he saw that he was laying on the bleachers and a pretty blonde girl, who was definitely not Sarah, was hovering over him. He opened his mouth to say anything but she shook her head at him to keep quiet. And he obeyed as she placed an ice pack on the bump, sending him relief from the numbness.

"W-What happened?" He finally croaked out after a while.

"Tyler Lockwood hates your guts."

He let out a wheezed laugh. His throat was still too dry. "Yeah, no kidding."

She gave him a small smile and sighed as she moved the ice pack to cover another side of the bump. "The nurse is sick and there was no one to fill for her so I volunteered." She explained.

He blinked at her, his mind still feeling rather cloudy. It was hard not to see even in his current state how stunning she was. "That's nice of you."

She was all blonde curls, blue eyes and rosy cheeks, almost doll-like. Her smile was even sweeter than Sarah and strangely the pang he usually felt when thinking of her wasn't as painful. He decided to reevaluate that later.

She let out a snort, blue eyes amused. "Some would beg to differ." She shook her head, making the curls out of her pony tail sway in the bright sunlight. "Believe me, I'm not that nice."

"What's your name?" He asked and she didn't answer for a bit. He could practically taste the strange tension in the air before she finally spoke.

"Caroline."

Pretty name.

"I'm Michael."

"I know." She finally removed the ice pack from his head, that part of his scalp feeling cold and numb. "This would've been a lot faster with a healing stone."

He blinked in surprise at what she just said before it finally sunk in. He got up abruptly, ignoring the lightheadedness that he felt at the sudden action. "Wait, are you–"

She interrupted him quickly. "Your Youtube video had over a million views." She said. "I got my cepan to take it down for you but even in a small town like this, someone's bound to have watched it." Her eyes were serious as they focused on him. "You should leave town soon."

Then wordlessly, she handed him the ice pack before walking down the bleachers and out of the field. He could only watch her as she disappeared from his sight, his head aching from not only just the swollen bump.

* * *

><p>When he finally got a healing stone to take care of his head injury, he told Six and Sam about his new discovery and both expressing immediate disbelief at the news.<p>

"But she's a _cheerleader_." Six pointed out as if it was the most distasteful thing in the world.

"Look I was shocked too but trust me, she's the one."

"You better be sure about that." Six muttered before walking off to her next class.

Turning to Sam for his input, all he got was a thoughtful expression.

"Are you _all _blonde?"

* * *

><p>Four had done some extensive digging before finding out that Elizabeth and Caroline Truitt moved to Mystic Falls over ten years ago. Liz married William Forbes and he adopted Caroline. After a while, the town had seemingly forgotten all this and accepted the two aliens as if they'd really been born and raised here.<p>

Four had to hand in to them, they're tactic had proven successful so far. Anonymity while constantly moving around was their tactic for most but they'd chosen a different idea all together and had assimilated themselves in their environment so well that they'd become part of the crowd.

A part of him was mildly jealous of Five – Caroline. His childhood memories consisted of temporary friends, temporary houses and temporary identities. She had a life for ten full years with lasting relationships and he envied her that. Still, he reasoned, their plan still had holes in it. The Mogandorians could've easily found them had they looked more closely.

Then again, who would look in Virginia for two alien refugees? They did. And he had a feeling they would be coming soon. Which meant moving again and he needed to convince Caroline and Liz Forbes to join them.

So there he was standing on the porch of the Forbes residence, ringing their doorbell and praying to whatever deity up there to make this go as smoothly as possible. The door opened to reveal a surprised Caroline, her mouth quickly going down in a frown at the sight of him.

"I thought I told you to leave town."

"And we are," He replied. "But I need to talk to the sheriff first."

"She's not home."

He looked behind Caroline to see Liz Forbes calmly sitting on their living room sofa. He gave Caroline a look which she returned, meaner.

"Caroline, let him in." Sheriff Forbes voice rang out and Four gave Caroline a smug smile before moving past her into the house.

* * *

><p>Liz was easy to talk to and in a few days they were all set to leave. Much to Caroline's ire, the blonde girl had not been happy about leaving her life in Mystic Falls behind despite her cepan explaining the need to. She wasn't outright saying her objections but Four could feel it with the sharp hateful glares she sent his way. As if this was his entire fault. He could only sigh.<p>

He was helping them unload their things into their car. Liz was in town taking care of last minute arrangements so it was only him and Caroline. He swore he heard her mutter about his quick and painful demise all too often.

"Look, Caroline," He stopped her before she entered the house again. She whipped around to glare at him and throw his hand off her arm. He sighed to himself. "Can we just talk?"

"No."

And with another whip of her hair, she was marching back into the house. He resisted shouting at the heavens in aggravation before following her. He was two steps into the house before the lights went out. It was nighttime so everything was pitch dark, he couldn't see a thing but he could still hear Caroline vehemently mutter curse words to herself.

He turned on his lumen, bright blue light filling up the space of the room. Caroline's surprised expression was visible to him now.

"It's called 'lumen'." He clarified at her noticeable confusion. "It's one of my legacies."

She only nodded briskly before turning around and gesturing for him to follow her. He was her new flashlight after all. He obeyed and soon they were climbing up the stairs and into Caroline's room. It was the first time he'd been in there and he stared wonderingly at all the photos and memorabilia she'd collected over the years.

He felt that pang of envy again. And he understood her a bit more, he couldn't begrudge her for being angry at leaving all these people and all the memories she'd had behind. He hadn't wanted to leave Sarah either but it didn't matter what they wanted. They had to keep moving or get caught and die.

* * *

><p>Three days into their road trip, Caroline and Six had declared war against each other.<p>

They were heading north to find Number Seven and the closer they got, they colder the weather was. Six was getting moody since she was used to the Australian outback's blistering heat and Caroline was mourning her old life. Their bad moods just fueled their hatred for each other and some days, it was just the two of them arguing while the rest of them watched the exchange.

The two blonde girls were both too hardheaded and stubborn to ever get along properly. Liz had spent the last couple of days breaking up fights and berating them for their behavior. How could they save the world when neither of them could keep their act together?

Meanwhile, he and Sam thought it was the most entertaining thing ever. They'd even placed bets on how long it would take before a real catfight would ensue. All they knew was it was going to be explosive, Six had her invisibility and elemental control while Caroline had cryokinesis and phasing ablity – it would be _awesome_.

* * *

><p>Four found Caroline crying one night, silent, painful tears streaming down her pretty face and he felt a pang more painful than ever in his chest, as if his heart was tightening to an unbearable degree. He didn't hesitate before coming over to her and sitting down beside her. She looked at him in surprise for a full minute before willingly crying into his shoulder. He only kept quiet, stroking her back as she sobbed all her sadness away.<p>

* * *

><p>Five days later, she kissed him. No warnings or explanations, just a hard meeting of her lips against his and he felt his world fall of its axis.<p>

_Wow._

That was pretty much the train of his thoughts as he watched her walk away.

* * *

><p>"I don't love you." She told him one night after everyone else had fallen asleep. She had taken to riding with him nowadays, sitting in the middle and sharing the role of navigator with Sam.<p>

He didn't say anything, just kept his eyes on the road, his hands tightening on the steering wheel. He didn't even want to consider why he felt hurt at her words. He didn't love her either. He loved Sarah with her kindness and beautiful eyes.

Or at least he thought he did.

"I don't love you either." He finally said after a while and they both knew he was lying.

He'd wonder to himself just how he got himself into such a mess. He'd thought he was supposed to be in love with Sarah because that's how their kind loved, it was forever. It was just that one special person forever. It wasn't supposed to be complicated, that was how humans were.

But he still couldn't help how he was feeling for Caroline even with her self-centered behavior and her vanity. He didn't want to be in love with someone like her.

"I don't _want_ to love you."

Those next few words made him feel like he was burning from the inside out, a strange happiness overcoming him because she just, well not directly, told him that she –

"Your hands are glowing."

He looked down to see that his lumen had been turned on without his knowing. He concentrated and his hands dimmed down back to normal.

"Is that normal?" She asked, her expression curious.

"No."

There was _nothing _normal about them after all.

* * *

><p><strong>For Day #2 of The Month of Caroline, I decided to do FourCaroline because that was the winning fandom in my pole.**


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